Typically, management of print services offered by a print provider is conducted by a person or persons deemed knowledgeable of the print services offered by the print provider. More specifically, the person or persons managing the print services of the print provider is charged with understanding the capabilities and/or limitations of the print services offered by the print provider, including equipment, materials, labor, and other resources of the print provider. In addition, the person or persons managing the print services of the print provider must also recognize the demands of print jobs presented to the print provider.
To ensure efficient, profitable, and competitive operation of the print services of the print provider, the person managing the print services of the print provider must monitor and analyze financial and production information of the print services. Typically, the person managing the print services of the print provider must manually collect and analyze a vast quantity of data to be able to monitor and analyze key performance indicators of the print services, including financial and production aspects of the print services. Unfortunately, manually collecting and analyzing such a vast quantity of data is often a tedious and demanding task. Personal management of the print services of the print provider, therefore, may be inefficient and unproductive.
Accordingly, a need exists for automatically managing print services of a print provider such that the print services offered by the print provider are efficient, profitable, and competitive. More particularly, a need exists for efficiently monitoring, analyzing, and reporting key performance indicators of financial and production information of the print services.